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Barbara Stock had no idea she was being written out of the hit show “Dallas.”
The actress portrayed Liz Adams, a sharp, street-smart government agent and friend of Patrick Duffy’s Bobby Ewing who became romantically involved with Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), for two seasons. The prime-time soap opera was one of the most-watched series of the 1980s.
Stock, who first caught viewers’ attention on the 1980s series “CHiPs,” saw “Dallas” as the opportunity of a lifetime — one that ended as quickly as it began.
“I realized I was being written out the day that somebody came up to me in the makeup room and said, ‘I hear this is your last day!’” Stock, now an interior designer in California, told Fox News Digital.
“I should have known,” she admitted. “This shows you my level of intelligence about these things.”
For Stock’s final episode, there was a clear clue she wouldn’t be coming back.
“I had a scene where I was packing my suitcase,” she said. “I had no reason to even think that I wasn’t coming back. But looking back, that’s always a big clue for any actor — when you’re packing your suitcase on a show, it might be the end. You’re about to take a sudden trip or vacation, for good.”
Stock said the realization “broke my heart.” She was hoping to be part of the show’s final send-off. “Dallas,” which premiered in 1978, followed the powerful Ewing family and their ongoing battles over their oil empire. The series inspired the spinoff “Knots Landing,” which captivated audiences from 1979 to 1993.
“Dallas” ended in 1991.
“One nice thing was that when you have a contract for all the episodes, you get paid anyway, even for the ones you didn’t do,” she said. “I was free to go off and do other work, too. It all worked out OK, but I missed them. I really enjoyed everyone. I looked forward to going to work every day, whether it was for a big group scene or a small one. There wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch. The cast was truly wonderful.”
Larry Hagman, who starred as ruthless J.R. Ewing, later told Stock that his wife believed J.R. should have ended up with her character when the show ended.
“It would have been interesting for me to end up being J.R.’s final love interest, as his wife suggested,” said Stock. “But once it was over, it was over. I didn’t overthink it.”
“I remember Larry welcomed me with open arms,” she reflected. “He was so down to earth and so nice. And then all of a sudden, I was packing my suitcase and leaving. I later learned it was because they had to finish all the other storylines for the original characters before it ended. So, I was sorry I didn’t get to do all the episodes I was signed up for, but it worked out OK for everybody.”
Stock stressed there are no hard feelings. She has nothing but wonderful memories from her time on “Dallas.”
“I just adored [Duffy],” she said. “Like Larry, he was so down to earth. I actually saw him last year at an autograph convention. It was so much fun to see him again. And man, he’s still working all the time and doing stage work, so he seems to have a very happy life. He was wonderful — they all were. George Kennedy, with whom I had a few scenes, and Ken, they really welcomed me.”
Stock is used to working with greats. She also played Florence Henderson’s daughter in a 1986 episode of “Murder, She Wrote.”
“We had worked together before,” said Stock. “We did a stage show in Los Angeles, and I was in the chorus. I got my Actor’s Equity card on that show. I was 22, and Florence starred in it. For those three months, she was fabulous — a great gal. And it was fun to later play mother and daughter.”
“I initially thought it was a strange casting because she was small and petite, and I was tall and brunette,” Stock continued. “But it was a lovely experience. Florence had such a wonderful sense of humor. And she was a great singer, too. She was just kind and good to everybody on set. And to work with Angela Lansbury, an icon who was just a consummate professional, was a gift.”
Stock said the actor she bonded with the most on set was Robert Urich, her co-star in the detective series “Spenser: For Hire,” which aired from 1985 to 1988.
“He was in my corner when I needed him,” she said. “We were true friends, and that’s one reason why our on-screen relationship was so good. We genuinely liked each other. I respected that he was the star of the show. I was a little intimidated at first when I met him, but he immediately put me at ease. I remember after the audition, when they called me back to meet with him, his face just lit up. I felt like he wanted me there, and I had a good chance of getting the role. It turned out to be the case.”
Urich died in 2002 after a long battle with cancer. He was 55.
“I was heartbroken when he died,” said Stock. “I remember I had a really lovely conversation with him. At one point, he thought he had beaten it. This would have been around 1997 or 1998. He said, ‘I just found out yesterday — they told me I beat this. I’m cancer-free.’ I was ecstatic for him. And after that, he and his wife adopted a baby. But then, four years later, his cancer came back. It was heartbreaking. He was too young.”
Stock stepped away from acting in the early 2000s. She has no regrets about the decision.
“I fell in love with design,” she explained. “And then, when we had our son, my husband and I wanted to stay home and just be with him. My husband was producing a TV series when our son was born, and he was gone for at least 12 hours a day. So when the show ended, we looked at each other and said, ‘We want to be home with our son.’”
“And to be honest, I was getting older,” she continued. “I was 38 when I had him. I didn’t start working until a year after he was born. I did a movie of the week, which was fantastic. It was on location in Tucson, so I took my son with me. But it starts to get challenging, balancing a career like acting with a personal life.”
“I did a few things here and there, and I always took him with me. But I found myself torn between working on set and being with my son. Eventually, I realized that I loved working on houses and designing, and I could be home more with my son. So I made the transition. It wasn’t a difficult decision, and I was always happy that I did it.”
Stock said she doesn’t know what show business is like these days. But the one piece of advice she’d give aspiring actors is to study their craft.
“Do what you have to do to get the job,” she said. “That doesn’t mean sleeping your way there to the top. You can have a fantastic career without ever having to do that.”
